“What’s it doing out there?” Lena asked. There was a strange quality in her voice. “As if she herself knew the answer,” Betty told herself.
“Well,” Grandfather Norton spoke slowly, “if I wasn’t dead sure that there was nothing but water out there, miles and miles of water, I should say that the light was a beacon to a landing field and that the plane was heading toward it for a landing.”
“Oh! But that’s impossible!” Betty exclaimed.
“Certainly it is,” Norton agreed.
Like a caged animal Lena began pacing the narrow platform. Once Betty thought she heard her murmur tensely, “It’s terrible. Just terrible.”
What was terrible and how did this big girl know it was terrible?
In the meantime the big plane was coming closer, ever closer to the swaying light. Those on shore, Beth, Bess, Norma, Rosa, and the rest, could hear the plane but could find no answer to the question, “Why is it there?”
Lena continued to pace the platform. Watching her, Betty realized that within the big girl’s mind a terrific battle was raging. “What battle?” she asked herself. “And why?”
For a time she found no answer. Then suddenly the answer came. Or was it the answer?
“See here!” Lena exclaimed, suddenly gripping Betty’s arm until it hurt. “I can’t stand it! That plane is going to come down, close to that light. It will crash. The pilot will be drowned and—and all on the plane—unless—”